Melton, who is director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion in Santa Barbara, Calif., will lecture on "The Emergence of the African American Church in the Antebellum World."

The event, presented by the Baylor Honors College, is free and open to the public.

Melton received his bachelor's degree from Birmingham-Southern College in 1964, his master's in divinity from Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary in 1964 and his doctoral degree from Northwestern University in 1975.

He founded the Institute for the Study of American Religion in 1968 and has remained its director for the last 42 years. He was named a Distinguished Senior Fellow of Baylor's Institute for Studies of Religion in 2009.

Melton is a scholar in the field of New Religions Studies and helped to create the sub-discipline. He sits on the international board of the Center for Studies in New Religions (CESNUR) based in Turin, Italy.

He also is an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church and is the author of more than 35 books and numerous scholarly articles and papers.